Chennai: India opened their campaign with a massive win against China by scoring 7 goals against visitors at the Hero Asian Champions Trophy Chennai 2023 (ACT Hockey 2023) here on Thursday. China settled with two. If we say it was raining goals at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium, it wouldn't be an understatement.
For India, Harmanpreet Singh opened the account in the 5th minute and followed it up with his second three minutes later. Varun Kumar had sent in two from his stick in the 19th and 30th minute. For their part, Sukhjeet Singh scored in the 15th minute and another was sent into China's goal post by Akashdeep Singh the next minute. The seventh came from Mandeep Singh (40') who also scored his 100th international goal.
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With home crowd advantage, India was off to a roaring start in the first quarter. The assertive attack demolished the Chinese defence. One of highest goal scorers in FIH Pro League history, Harmanpreet Singh scored back-to-back goals, giving India an early 2-0 lead.
India's goal run continued as the hosts managed to create their third Penalty Corner (PC) in the 15th minute. China defended Harmanpreet's flick but couldn't stop India forward Sukhjeet Singh picking up the rebound and sending it in to the goal post.
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India scored it's fourth with forward Akashdeep Singh ran through Chinese defenders with his trademark tomahawk to the post. India defender Varun Kumar's error helped China score its first goal of the match and it came off from E Wenhui in the 18th minute. A spirited Varun scored India's fifth one through a PC in the first 20 minutes of the game.
China was seen working hard to find their rhythm in their comeback to International hockey. Accordingly, they did well to overcome the early setback and was patiently looking for a chance in the circle. Jiesheng Gao was on target beating India's PC defence and scored a crucial second goal for his team.
Varun Kumar scored his next goal in the 30th minute, to help India finish high on six goals.
Mandeep Singh scores his 100th international goal- China came back with a strategy in the third quarter. Their defence seemed flawless and were restricting India's movement in the 25m mark. Their confidence was in display and looked optimistic. India struggled a bit in third quarter as they took about 10 minutes to create an opening in the striking circle.
Mandeep Singh picked up a good variation in PC execution and scored India's 7th and final goal in the 40th minute. That goal was Mandeep's 100th international goal. India played the last quarter looking to increase their goal margin while they had a five goal margin already.
Despite the number of chances created in the quarter, China's goalie Caiyu Wang did well to stop the hosts to settle for its third quarter score. His teammates were not able to score in the counter attack. India Captain Harmanpreet Singh was awarded Hero Top Goal Scorer of FIH Hockey Pro League Season 4 and was presented a cheque of 3,000 USD by FIH President Dato Tayyab Ikram. Manpreet Singh was awarded Hero Player of the match.
